The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the key events of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War. The battle lasted 200 days and nights, from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943, and ended in a complete victory for Soviet forces.

In the summer of 1942, Germany planned a major offensive in the south of the USSR: to capture Stalingrad as an important industrial and transport hub on the Volga, advance toward the Caucasus and gain access to the oil regions. The loss of Stalingrad could have placed the entire southern flank of Soviet forces in a critical position.

The defense of the city was exceptionally fierce. After a massive bombing raid on August 23, 1942, Stalingrad was almost completely destroyed, and tens of thousands of civilians were killed. Fighting took place literally for every street and every house; a crucial role was played by the 62nd Army under General Vasily Chuikov and the 64th Army under General Mikhail Shumilov.

The turning point came with the start of the Soviet counteroffensive on November 19, 1942. The operation was named Uranus: the forces of the Southwestern, Don and Stalingrad Fronts encircled the Wehrmacht grouping in the Stalingrad area. By November 23, the ring around Friedrich Paulus’s 6th Army had closed; 22 divisions and more than 300,000 men were trapped inside.

The German attempt to break through to the encircled grouping during Operation Winter Storm failed. Soviet forces stopped Manstein’s attack, while Vasily Badanov’s tank corps raid on Tatsinskaya seriously disrupted the air supply of Paulus’s army.

In January 1943, Operation Ring began, aimed at the final destruction of the encircled grouping. Paulus capitulated, and along with him tens of thousands of soldiers and officers, including 24 generals, were taken prisoner. The fighting ended on February 2, 1943.

The Battle of Stalingrad marked a fundamental turning point in the war. After the defeat at Stalingrad, Germany lost the strategic initiative, was forced to retreat from the North Caucasus and was never able to restore its former offensive strength. The victory showed the entire world that the USSR would not lose the war and would continue advancing until Nazi Germany was completely defeated.

The Battle for the Caucasus became one of the most important battles of the Great Patriotic War. In the summer of 1942, after its failure near Moscow, the German command planned to launch a new powerful strike in the south of the USSR. Its main goal was to defeat Soviet forces in the southern direction, reach the Volga and the Caucasus, and gain access to vital natural resources — above all oil, grain and mineral deposits. The capture of the Caucasus was intended to give Germany the means to continue the war on a global scale.

The battle lasted more than a year and was divided into two stages. The first, defensive stage lasted from July 25 to December 31, 1942. The second, offensive stage began on January 1, 1943 and ended on October 9, 1943 with the liberation of the Caucasus region. On the Soviet side, the Southern, North Caucasus and Transcaucasian Fronts took part in the battle. Opposing the Red Army were the forces of the Wehrmacht and Germany’s allies — Romania, Slovakia and Italy.

The German plan envisaged bypassing the Greater Caucasus Range from two directions. In the west, the enemy sought to capture Novorossiysk and Tuapse, while in the east it aimed to break through to Grozny and Baku. Control over the oil fields was of enormous importance to Germany: without these resources, the Nazi leadership could not count on continuing a prolonged war. In addition, the Germans planned to paralyze the bases of the Black Sea Fleet and advance toward the Turkish border, opening a route to the Near and Middle East.

At the beginning of the offensive, German troops advanced rapidly. Soviet units retreated with heavy fighting toward the Don and Kuban. In August 1942, the enemy captured Stavropol, Maykop and Krasnodar, and then reached Mozdok, creating a threat to Grozny and its oil fields. At the same time, fierce battles unfolded for Novorossiysk and Anapa. Some territory had to be abandoned, but the Germans failed to take Tuapse: the Black Sea Group of Forces of the Transcaucasian Front held the defense there with determination.

The enemy also tried to break through the central part of the Caucasus Range. Specially trained mountain units were used for this purpose, but the resistance of Soviet troops thwarted these plans. The battles near Ordzhonikidze, through which German units tried to reach Grozny, became especially important. Here the enemy offensive was stopped, and Soviet counterattacks gradually became stronger. By the end of 1942, the German army’s offensive capabilities in the Caucasus had been exhausted.

The defense of the Caucasus became an example of the unity of the peoples of the Soviet Union. Representatives of different republics and nationalities fought in the battles, while local residents helped build defensive lines, volunteered for military units and supplied the front with everything it needed. Germany had counted on exploiting ethnic tensions and inciting some mountain peoples against Soviet power, but that calculation failed. The Caucasus became one of the symbols of the common resistance of the peoples of the USSR to the Nazi invasion.

At the beginning of 1943, the situation at the front changed. The Red Army’s victory at Stalingrad created the conditions for a broad offensive in the south. Soviet forces began the liberation of the republics of the North Caucasus, the Stavropol region, the Kuban and the Rostov region. They advanced up to 600 kilometers in combat, liberating cities and strategically important areas. The fascist flag was removed from Mount Elbrus, becoming a symbol of the collapse of German plans in the Caucasus.

One of the most famous episodes of the battle was the defense of Malaya Zemlya. In February 1943, a Soviet landing force came ashore on the coast of Tsemes Bay near Novorossiysk and held a small bridgehead until September. The fighting there was extremely heavy: German troops repeatedly tried to throw the landing force back into the sea. But the defenders of Malaya Zemlya held their ground, and the bridgehead itself played an important role in the liberation of Novorossiysk and the Taman Peninsula.

By October 9, 1943, the Caucasus region had been liberated. The victory was of enormous strategic significance: Germany failed to seize the main Soviet oil fields and did not obtain the resources it needed to continue an offensive war. Together with the Battle of Stalingrad, the victory in the Caucasus became part of the fundamental turning point in the Great Patriotic War.

The price of this victory was very high. Total Red Army losses in the Battle for the Caucasus amounted to more than 593,000 people, including over 276,000 irrecoverable losses. The Wehrmacht and its allies lost more than 420,000 soldiers. In 1944, the medal “For the Defense of the Caucasus” was established, and around 870,000 people were awarded it.

The Battle for the Caucasus showed that the strength of the country lay not only in its army, but also in the unity of its peoples, their readiness to defend their land and withstand the harshest trials. Victory in this direction disrupted one of Germany’s key strategic plans and brought the overall defeat of Nazism closer.

The Battle of Kursk became one of the decisive events of the Great Patriotic War. In the summer of 1943, the German command attempted to regain the strategic initiative after its defeat at Stalingrad. The main blow was planned against the Kursk salient — a section of the front that protruded deep into German positions and created favorable conditions for encircling Soviet forces. The German operation was code-named Citadel and was scheduled to begin on July 5, 1943.

Hitler’s command intended to encircle and destroy large Red Army forces on the Kursk salient, and then develop the offensive in other directions. A victory at Kursk could have strengthened the German defense, restored the Wehrmacht’s confidence after the catastrophe at Stalingrad and influenced the plans of the USSR’s allies. However, Soviet command had received advance information about the impending offensive and decided not to rush into an attack, but first to wear down the enemy in a deeply prepared defensive system.

Preparations for the battle were enormous. Several defensive belts were created on the Kursk salient; firing positions were built, thousands of kilometers of trenches and communication passages were dug, and the approaches to the positions were mined. The Soviet troops of the Central Front under Konstantin Rokossovsky and the Voronezh Front under Nikolai Vatutin prepared to meet the blow of the German tank armadas. In the rear stood Ivan Konev’s Steppe Front, which was to enter the battle after the German offensive had been stopped.

The German army placed its hopes on new tanks and self-propelled guns. Heavy Tiger tanks, new Panthers and other armored vehicles were brought to the front, surpassing many Soviet tanks in firing range and armor protection. Soviet tank crews and artillerymen had to find ways to fight this equipment, allowing it to approach at close range and striking its vulnerable points. At the same time, aviation was preparing for the battle: after its successes in the air battles over the Kuban, Soviet pilots sought to secure a decisive shift in the skies.

On the eve of the German offensive, Soviet command learned that the attack would begin at dawn on July 5. A powerful artillery strike was launched against German units already prepared for the attack. It did not destroy the enemy’s main forces, but it delayed the offensive and disrupted the original order of attack. In the morning, German tank formations nevertheless moved forward. Heavy defensive battles began on the northern and southern faces of the Kursk salient. German troops managed to penetrate the Soviet defense, but they were unable to break through it completely.

On the northern face, especially fierce fighting took place near Ponyri. Soviet artillerymen, infantrymen and tank crews held their positions under constant attacks. One of the symbols of these battles was the feat of Captain Georgy Igishev’s battery near the village of Samodurovka. The artillerymen repelled German tank attacks, firing almost point-blank; when their guns were destroyed, they continued the fight hand to hand. In this sector, the German offensive was stopped, and the enemy suffered heavy losses in men and equipment.

On the southern face of the Kursk salient, the main events unfolded near Prokhorovka. Here, elite German tank formations, including SS units, operated against the Red Army. Soviet command urgently transferred General Pavel Rotmistrov’s 5th Guards Tank Army to this direction. Soviet tank crews had to close the distance with the enemy and force close combat in order to reduce the advantage of the heavy German tanks in firing range.

The battle near Prokhorovka became one of the most famous tank battles of the Great Patriotic War. Its climax came on July 12, 1943. Hundreds of tanks and self-propelled guns took part on both sides. Losses were enormous, but German troops were unable to develop their success. Their striking power was seriously weakened, while Soviet command retained reserves for further operations. After Prokhorovka, the German offensive effectively lost its prospects.

On July 12, Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive on the northern section of the Kursk salient. The operation was named Kutuzov and was directed against the enemy’s Oryol grouping. By July 15, the armies of the Central Front had also gone on the offensive, and soon German troops began retreating along the entire line of the Kursk salient. On August 3, the Soviet Voronezh and Steppe Fronts began the Belgorod-Kharkov Offensive Operation, known as Operation Rumyantsev.

Soviet partisans played an important role in the overall success. In early August 1943, the large-scale operation Rail War began. Its goal was to disrupt German transportation, prevent the movement of troops, equipment and ammunition to the front, and undermine the supply system. Partisans blew up railway tracks, attacked trains and complicated the supply of the German Army Groups Center and South at the most critical moment of the summer battles.

On August 5, the Red Army liberated Oryol and Belgorod. That same evening in Moscow, for the first time during the war, an artillery salute was fired in honor of the victory of Soviet troops. On August 23, 1943, Kharkov was liberated, bringing the Battle of Kursk to an end. This date later became one of Russia’s Days of Military Glory — the day of the defeat of the German-Fascist troops in the Battle of Kursk.

The victory on the Kursk salient was of immense significance. Germany suffered a severe defeat, lost a substantial part of its best divisions and finally lost the strategic initiative on the Soviet-German front. After the Battle of Kursk, the Red Army was no longer merely repelling enemy attacks — it was advancing confidently westward, liberating Ukraine, Belarus and other territories. The Battle of Kursk completed the fundamental turning point in the Great Patriotic War and became one of the main symbols of the strength, courage and resilience of the Soviet people.